"My mother seemed to comprehend what had happened.
"'You have seen Alice?' she said.
"'Yes, but she did not see me.'
"'It is as well,' she returned coldly. 'Alice is no longer a simple-hearted child. The false position in which she has been placed has made her proud and vain. It would have been better for her to have remained with her cross, disagreeable grandmother, than to have been tolerated by the high born and wealthy.'
"I felt angry with my mother for speaking thus of Alice. I thought it harsh and unkind.
"The glimpse I had caught of her face had rekindled the old fire in my heart. She was a beautiful, elegant, fair woman. The very beau ideal of my long dream of love, and should yet be my wife, if it were possible for me to make her so.
"With some trepidation, I asked my mother what position she filled at the Hall, and whose child it was she held in her arms?
"'I cannot exactly answer your question,' she said. 'She is neither regarded as a servant, nor yet as one of the family. She is generally in attendance upon my lady, and takes care of her little grandson.'
"'To which of her sons does the child belong?'